Angers > Langeais 105km

[Originally posted Jul 23, 2014]

Sitting on the ledge of a wall in the south west corner of the gardens at the Chateau de Villandry.  It’s 9:15am (which means this morning ties with our second earliest departure thus far) and the sun is coming through the clouds and above the vine covered path that surrounds the gardens.

As physically demanding as riding a bike cross-country might be, the most difficult part of this trip has not been the cycling (however the hills of Devon, England were no simple task) - but the necessary attention to details that exist apart from cycling.  Without a fridge or a bed, and never in the same city for longer than a day, the constant demands of where are we going, how will we get there, what will we eat (the answer to this is usually everything we stumble upon) and where will we sleep begin to be taxing.  Once these details are sorted out the cycling is very easy.  It is for this reason that Wild Camping goes hand-in-hand with bike touring.

The principles of Wild Camping are very simple and adopted by most long distance (it seems the threshold for almost exclusive wild camping is usually around 4-6 months) touring cyclists.  Principles are as follows: ride your bike until you are tired - look for a nice spot of ground - set up camp.  Assuming the cyclist carries food the only real provision to be looked for is water.  Water for drinking, washing and rinsing your toothbrush after you have brushed your teeth (although at times during my childhood it seems as though my father never rinsed his brush once it left his mouth and I suppose he has turned out okay.  I remember vividly seeing the crusty, gnarly remains of what I can only imagine to be last year’s toothpaste [no offense dad]).  Water has always been vital for survival - as we follow the EuroVelo 6 route along the Loire River valley from the Atlantic Ocean towards central France we visit the Chateaus de la Loire.  Seven hundred years ago dozens of kings built huge castles along this river.  Yesterday we passed a nuclear power plant, dependent upon the cooling ability of water to keep nuclear fission from going awry.  And so, yesterday as Katy and I searched for a nice place to shower (along the banks of the Loire) we were certainly not the first who were dependent upon this river.  (According to Michel, the other place you can always count on finding water is at cemeteries - they always have a spicket so flowers can be watered.  And, according to Michel, a liter of water is always enough for a wash).

We camped underneath a bridge that connects Langeais and La Chapelle-aux-Naux (because as much as we love and need water, we also fear it).  According to Jerry Seinfeld, people travel to the beach, sit around lakes, buy bottles of it, our bodies are made of it, we really can’t get enough of it.  We love water.  But, when it’s very small pieces of fast flying water - we fear it.  “Oh, I felt a drop.  It’s gonna rain.  Did you check the weather”?

The camping was great.  But nature is always quieter at 9pm then at 3am.  Last night Katy and I listened to a symphony of frogs that just would not quit.  Bugs and birds of every kind that were either singing or dying, sometimes it’s hard to tell which.  Only twice did a car come off the path to shine their lights on us, to which I just raised my hand (so they wouldn’t hit us) and shouted bon nuit (yeah, you blend!).  Other than that, a great sleep - and we saved the €17 that the local campground was trying to charge.  I think that as a fundamental human right I shouldn’t have to pay to sleep.  And there is no way I am paying €17 to wake up to noisy kids, wait in a line for a shower that can only be compared to a large animal spitting on you and waste half the evening if this dreadful WiFi will go any faster.

Expenses €3.60 Bakery €4.80 Soap €9 Food €13 McDs €9 Pizza